The culture of bullying in a primary school

M.Ed.School bullying has become a serious problem worldwide, affecting as many as one in four children. Although not much research on bullying has been conducted in South Africa, bullying has been found to underlie psychological problems, violence and suicide. A common myth among people is that bullying is seen as something that only happens at other schools, but according to many researchers it happens at all schools. Until recently, research has focused on deficit-positivistic perspectives that have viewed bullying as a cause and effect relationship. This consequently led to a belief that the problem can be 'fixed'. This resulted in the use of ad-hoc, short-term strategies that have served to alleviate the problem of bullying temporarily. The focus of this research was to gain a thorough understanding of how the unique culture at Hillside Primary School influenced bullying behaviour, by identifying and describing the values and norms of the various members of the community, that underlie bullying. This study was based on a constructive, ecosystemic and critical perspective, and therefore focused on the whole system, rather than only on the bully and/or the victim. An integration of Davidoff and Lazarus's (1997) framework for whole-school development and Keith Sullivan's continuum model, which shows the relationship between the school's philosophy and the school environment, was used to understand and interpret the findings. It is contended that if members of a community are made aware of the values, norms, beliefs and attitudes that contribute towards bullying, then they are in a position to change them. It is argued that such an approach will lead to deep and long lasting change because it is preventative in nature, rather than solely relying on intervention. The methodological design used to achieve the research aim was a qualitative critical ethnography. The sample was purposefully and theoretically selected. This design allowed the researcher into the here and now perspectives of the participants at Hillside Primary School, once a week, over a period of approximately two terms. Moreover, it accommodated the flexible and emergent nature of the research, and allowed for thick, rich interpretive descriptions of the process. The researcher used the Grade seven class as one of the systems of the school, as a lens to explore the culture of the school, through participant observation. The data that emerged was continuously interpreted by means of the constant comparative method of data analysis.The main finding of the study indicated that bullying is a complex phenomenon that is interwoven into numerous values and norms of a predominant authoritarian culture that unwittingly condone bullying. The findings also revealed that Hillside Primary School may be described as a conflicted school, because its philosophy does not cohere with the implementation of democratic procedures. This is indicative of an unsafe learning environment. The research concludes that if schools in South Africa are serious about combating bullying, then they need to first become authentic, purposeful communities, in which all members of a community identify and commit to core values